Child Abuse and Neglect

Reinforce the Role of Parents As Their Child’s First Teacher
Without the support of extended families and robust communities, many new and expecting parents feel isolated and unprepared even though they are their children’s most important teachers.  Low-income parents, particularly, face hurdles just to provide the necessities of life for their children. There are a number of model programs that provide voluntary intensive home-visiting and parent education.  Lack of funding in Illinois leaves current home-visiting programs only able to reach 1 of 5 kids in poverty ages 0-3. Reaching more at-risk families with these proven programs will cut child abuse and neglect significantly.

A.  Prevent child abuse and neglect and help more parents to promote healthy child development and nurture social-emotional development—key components of early learning—by maintaining the current funding of $20.5 million for evidence-based home visiting programs in the Illinois Department of Human Services final FY 14 budget.  

B.  Support Illinois’ new federal funding for home visiting programs – Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program. Illinois must maintain state funding at FY 2010 levels in order to qualify for the MIECHV funding.